Business Report FY2019
1．General
During 49 years since its establishment, the Institute for Future Engineering (IFENG), a
first-generation think tank in Japan, has continuously been trying to gain an insight into
the developing tendency of science and technology and into socioeconomic changes, toidentify issues and their solutions for a desirable future on the basis of engineering
methodologies, and to propose ways how science and technology solve possible problems.
The fiscal 2019 concludes the seventh year of IFENG as a public-interest corporation.
Efforts to achieve a capability commensurate with the status of the institute have resulted
in 71 researchers (mostly part-timers) compared with the initial 34. Synergy of the newly
hired part-timers with different backgrounds with the full-time researchers who have got
accustomed to the new management system has led to a variety of contracted works andhas expanded the business to include independent nonprofit projects. Meanwhile, IFENG
obtained for 2019 the fourth place in the GGTTI think tank ranking in the science andtechnology area, following the eighth in 2012 and 2013, the sixth in 2014, the fifth in2015 and 2016, and fourth in 2017 and 2018. Financially FY2019 recorded a large surplus
thanks to the highest amount ever of contract. However, this is essentially due to a largescale project related to the Basic Plan for Science and Technology formulated every fiveyears; the fundamental financial position of IFENG has not been sufficiently improved.
The immediate priorities for the institute are expansion and stabilization of the business
and, particularly, improvement and effective utilization of skills of the expanded parttime research staff. IFENG itself also needs renovations to address new issues in responseto the worldwide changes of business climate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which
occurred late the fiscal year.

IFENG's article of incorporations define its activities in three categories1): investigationsin the area of future engineering, interaction with the public related to future engineering(publicity, services, etc.), and international exchange related to future engineering.
The activities of a public-interest corporation are to be classified into nonprofit (N) and1

for-profit (F) ones. The former is intended for the general public, while the latter is for
specific parties.

2. Business-related activities
For explanations in this section, the N and P activities are further divided into three each:(1) contracted investigations (investigations driven by commissions or subventions byother parties), (2) independent investigations (investigations relying on its own fund), and(3) interactive research2). Individual details are presented below. Activities related tointernational exchange are described in the last paragraph without differentiating N andP categories.

A total of 50 projects were implemented in FY2019, including four continued from thepreceding year (one of which has already been closed financially) and one to be continued
in the next year. Forty-nine were thus concluded within the fiscal year and considered in
the account settlement.

The current contract-based projects include 18 for N1, 28 for P1 and 3 for P2. The project
names are specified in the tables in the subsequent sections.

(1) Contracted investigations
The 46 F1 and P1 projects completed in FY2019 included 28 contracts with public
institutions and 18 with private companies or foundations. Details are given for
subventionary and commissioned investigations3) respectively.

Two projects were supported by the private sector (Watanabe Memorial Foundation for
the Advancement of New Technology), three were subsidized by the Grants-in-Aid for
Scientific Research ("Kakenhi", Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) (jointinvestigations), and one by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the remaining 40 werecommissioned projects.
2

The commissions came from six governmental agencies for 13 projects (compared with
13 in the preceding year, the same hereinafter), five government-run institutions for 8(12), three universities for 3 (3), and six business companies for 12 (11). The
commissioning government agencies included the Cabinet Office; the Ministry ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Agency for Cultural Affairs; theMinistry of Health, Labor and Welfare; the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry andFisheries; and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Several
National Research and Development Agencies (including Japan Science TechnologyAgency) and Independent Administrative Agencies have also commissioned researchworks to IFENG, as well as a private and two national universities. IFENG made also
four research contracts with private institutions. A subventionary project supported bya private institution is to be continued to the next year.

In terms of the business categories, 18 projects belong to nonprofit activities and 31 forprofit activities, as shown in the following table.

(2) Independent investigations(i) Independent nonprofit investigations (N2)
The self-financed nonprofit independent investigations include preparatory works forsupporting contracted projects (original concepts) and studies to expand researchers’
knowledge. No activity in FY2019 belonged to this category.

(ii) Independent for-profit investigations (F2)
The independent for-profit investigations in 2019 included three projects (consulting) tosupport business companies' activities related to science and technology based onIFENG’s existing knowledge.

(3) Interaction with the public(i) Nonprofit interaction with the public (N3)
The activities below started in 2015 to feedback the research outcome of IFENG to wide3

public:(a) In an SNS-based publicity program, IFENG’s official Twitter account was establishedalong with accounts for individual projects. It is intended to familiarize the public withthe research outcome of the institute and to encourage their access to essential issues byinviting the followers of the accounts to visit the official IFENG website, particularly the“Insight” and “Forum” sections. Experiences obtained in the projects implemented in
FY2015-16 were helpful. This activity has been suspended in 2019 due to renewal worksof the Institute’s website.

(b) Publication of Annual Report and expansion of the English pages in IFENG’s website
were realized along with individual researchers’ publication of their research results andpresentation of their views in a number of printed media, conferences, meetings andseminars.

(ii) For-profit interaction with the public (F3)Support of Aviation Forum was continued as a research activity related to futureengineering by IFENG members.

(4) International exchange
A total of 16 researchers visited the US, Finland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands,Britain, Germany, India, Singapore, China, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Australia
for their investigations.

Notes
1) Article 4.
2) These categories are hereinafter represented as N1, N2, .., P1, P2, etc.
3) Investigations supported by subsidization from subventionary funds are called“subventionary”; those based on other financial sources are “commissioned”.

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